Miraculous masa cooks up a corny family comedy

By Devin D. O’Leary

The other shot-in-New-Mexico feature hitting theaters this weekend is a decidedly lower profile, lower budget affair than Paul Haggis’ In The Valley of Elah (see the other film review in this issue). Filmed in 2001 and finally earning itself an art house release, Tortilla Heaven is a more markedly “New Mexico” film, a broadly comic morality play about small-town Southwest life.

Murder mystery muddies the water of our post-Iraq world

By Devin D. O’Leary

Writer/director Paul Haggis follows up his Oscar-heavy string of assignments (Crash, Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima) with the quietly controversial, war-weary mystery In The Valley of Elah.

“Torchwood” on BBC America

By Devin D. O’Leary

“Torchwood” is the BBC’s officially sanctioned, adult-oriented spin-off to “Doctor Who.” Originally launched in 1963 as a sci-fi-slanted kiddy show, “Doctor Who” got the latest in a long line of reboots in 2005 courtesy of head writer/executive producer Russell T. Davies. Having served previously as writer/producer on “Queer as Folk,” Davies brought a rather more mature style to the long-running BBC series. Thanks to the popularity of his work on “Doctor Who,” the BBC let Davies run wild with “Torchwood.”

The Week in Sloth

Thursday 20

”Survivor” (KRQE-13 7 p.m.) CBS strands a new bunch of survivors in a 15th season of “Survivor.” This time, they’re in China. As long as they stay away from the toothpaste, the cat food and the Thomas the Tank Engine toys, everything should be all right.